Computer systems and computer related systems are becoming commonplace in today's workplace and homes. Both personal computers and larger systems including workstations and networked computer terminals, are being applied to new applications daily. In these and other electronic systems, when the system is started-up or "initialized", there are several operations or steps that are executed before the system is ready for use. Occasionally, for any of various reasons, the system does not complete the initialization steps and gets "hung-up" during the initialization and an error message, for example, may be displayed to a user.
In networked systems, which include server units, the servers include panels or drawers of I/O (input-output) components mounted in racks which are physically displaced from any user or display device. When a server does not initialize properly, it is sometimes difficult to determine the point at which the initialization process failed.
Although it is possible to provide software support for initialization error detection, such programs may only provide an error message on a system display CRT that the initialization process did not complete. In many cases, the display CRT is at a location displaced from the system hardware racks which include the electronics and boards which would need to be checked. Moreover, the exact cause or point at which the failure occurred is not known or is not displayed. Accordingly, when the system is being checked-out to for the cause of the failure, the start-up or initialization process must be run again to attempt to determine at what point in the initialization process the failure occurred.
Moreover, in systems which are shipped to international customers, software de-bugging solutions are sometimes difficult to implement because of the number of languages to which the error and other information must be translated before being communicated to repair personnel for system repair and/or maintenance.
Thus, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for communicating error and other system initialization and other operating information to personnel responsible for system operation and/or maintenance.